Good News for Arctic Seals: Polar Bears Are Starving to Death

A video, produced by an Canadian environmental activist, showing a polar bear at the point of death by starvation, has gone viral: which is to say, it has been relentlessly hyped by the BrainWash media, such as the nauseating fount of lies, the Guardian, and passed on among thousands of FakeBook trend-followers and tweeting Twitterers as proof that global warming is destroying the world and that if "we," by whom they mean "you," don't cut "our," by which they mean "your," living standard, the world will very shortly end.

In thinking about this, it's worth remembering a couple of basic facts.

First, polar bears, like people, are mortal, which means that every polar must die. As a top predator, few polar bears are killed by other animals, so starvation is likely the most frequent cause of death, resulting either because an animal has become too old and weak to hunt, or because food is unavailable. So not only do all polar bears die, but most polar bears die of starvation.

Second, What evidence there is, shows no global decline in polar bear population. Claims to the contrary seem based solely on a hypothesis, namely, that low Arctic ice extent in recent years, due allegedly, to climate change wrought, allegedly, by mankind, has reduced the opportunity for bears to hunt seals, which they can do only when they have access to the ocean by way of the ice.

On that point, however, facts do not bear the theory out. Although Arctic ice extent in recent years has been at the low end of the long-term range of variation, polar bear populations appear not to have declined over the last 20 years.

Third, insofar as that theory about human caused reduction in Arctic ice and polar bear population has any validity, seals must rejoice. A seal, it is said, will provide a bear with calories sufficient for a week (see narrated video below). Thus, when they can, Polar bears live by the relentless killing of seals. So if more seals live at the expense of bears, why is that an outcome to be deplored?



According to the Guardian:

... Paul Nicklen, the creator of the starving-bear video, wrote on social media:

 "My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear." 

But that surely is a foolish way of looking at things when you consider how a polar bear lives:

As for the Guardian's comment that the:

 'Soul-crushing' video of starving polar bear exposes climate crisis, experts say.

It is a reiteration of a worthless claim unsupported by evidence. Moreover, it is an incitement to stupidity and self-hatred. It is an encouragement for people to think that we humans should off ourselves to save the bears, or the frogs or some damn bird or fish you never heard of til the Guardian and their ilk started yelping idiotically about it.

As I have written in other posts, there are good reason for concern about changing the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere quite apart from any minor risk of severe detrimental climate change, but the life and death of one polar bear is not one of those reasons.